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Ethical codes are landmarks of medicine's professional development. They embody the values of the time in which they are written and the culture from which they spring. They provide an ethical structure to govern the practices of physicians and physicians' relationships with patients, society, and each other. They create the doctor's moral identity. The Hippocratic Oath (circa 400 BCE) and the ethical codes of the American Medical Association (written between 1847 to 1980) are examples of these works. Joining this group is the Charter on Medical Professionalism, written under the auspices of internal medicine organizations in the United States and Europe (1).